Fox does not enjoy summer camp

Warning – You need to know something before you go any further; Summer of ’58 is in no way affiliated with Bryan Adams and the Summer of ’69. At least not directly. He might have had a hand in the summer camp turned horror show that is Camp Yunost, but I somehow doubt it. Also, I guess there might be very light spoilers so read ahead knowing that.

Personally, I was really hoping for some sort of Bryan Adams spin off, as that would have been way less traumatic, but we can’t all get what we want in life. I was at least fortunate enough to have never attended Camp Yunost. Yeesh.

Played it ’till my fingers bled seems far more likely here, Bryan.

I will begin by saying that I myself really enjoyed SO58, as I will now refer to it. Marketed as a “First person psychological thriller,” SO58 did that title justice. You get given enough insight of the Protagonist that you sort of hate him; You want to play on, knowing you might scare yourself purely because He’s the one actually there, actually living it…or maybe that was just me. Either way, SO58 doesn’t waste too much time with set ups that kill the whole thing. We get a quick easy premise – I investigate the paranormal on a YouTube channel, so let’s investigate the paranormal – which also answers the questions you’d scream at the character later. I mean, I can’t be the only one questioning why we never dropped that damn camera in Red Barrels Outlast right? I get when we started it was for evidence but after things got bad…just run?! At least in SO58 you understand why he has that camera, and why he won’t just turn around and leave when things get a bit dicey. Daddy needs to make some content!

Bo Burnham references aside, it was a fun game. There were enough jump scares to keep me on edge, but with enough pacing that I’d grown relaxed. They were all the more devastating because of it. The entire atmosphere of Camp Yunost has you on edge right away. You get some pretty bad vibes, and I was immediately thinking of how much I wanted out. The fact that you’re reading this post means I obviously didn’t listen, and stuck it out.

I don’t want to spoil too much, because a lot of the magic of SO58 is playing it yourself and thinking “What in the shit is actually happening here?” but I do have to say it delivered the perfect amount of “What the fuck” You’d expect from a game that starts with “Hey let’s investigate this old Russian school/orphanage that may or may not be situated next to a Cold war era hospital.”
Honestly, you’d think that’s a huge giveaway but it really isn’t.

What a wholesome summer experience you’d have here that would in no way scar you for life

Warning; the next paragraph contains story based spoilers for SO58

Now if you want to know what happened in the game, or you’ve finished it and you’re still thinking “What in the titty fucking christ just happened?” good luck, because I still don’t know for sure. Every time I play the game and think I have if figured out, something else happens and confuses the hell out of me. The main theme that seems to be concurrent in all playthroughs is that the lady who ran the Summer camp had a child with some sort of disease; she partnered up with a super sketchy doc who lost his medical license and was like “Hey, I’m gonna start a summer camp for kids, how about you help me gas them and harvest them till one of them matches my darling?” It goes wrong, however, one child survives, and he gets blamed for all those deaths.

This is where it gets a bit tricky. We know that the young boy, Yakov, is innocent. He somehow got away and is hiding in the old camp. He keeps away visitors with the help of the ghosts of his departed camp mates. The confusion begins when we have the flashback to the night everyone died. It turns out Maria wasn’t successful in her plan to gas everyone and start harvesting; not only did Yakov sabotage her mask and play an uno reverse card, gassing her instead, but a mysterious figure in gas mask, head lamp and hazmat suit arrives and stares ominously whilst Maria passes out. Next, we find a death certificate for her son, showing he actually died in 1950. Exactly. 8 years prior to her weird organ collection scheme. Alongside that, there’s a note that states her organ harvesting buddy actually met Maria and said “Oh fuck no, you crazy!” leaving her to save her already dead son alone. Coupled with the weird sex dungeon ending, SO58 leaves us with as many questions as it originally answers.

Still. Game is fucking scary and fun.

-BrightStarFOX